Impinj, Inc., the fabless semiconductor company whose patented Self-Adaptive Silicon technology enables its two business lines: high performance radio-frequency identification (RFID) and semiconductor intellectual property products today announced that its Gen 2 RFID products, the Monza silicon chip for tags and labels and the Speedway RFID Dense-Mode Reader 1.1 received EPCglobal Hardware Certification Marks during the 2005 EPCglobal US Conference.

The EPCglobal Hardware Certification Mark assures the marketplace that the RFID product to which it is affixed has been rigorously tested against EPCglobal standards by MET Laboratories, which was chosen as EPCglobals worldwide, third-party testing partner in 2004. The EPCglobal Hardware Certification Program tests and certifies RFID silicon chips, readers, reader modules, and printer/encoders with embedded reader modules.

Introduced in April 2005 and now in volume production, Monza is the first silicon chip to achieve certification. Monza interoperates with multiple Gen 2 readers, reader modules and printers which have received the EPCglobal Certification Mark. One of these readers, Impinjs Speedway, has been certified for operation in all modes of the Gen 2 standard, including the challenging dense reader mode. The dense reader mode of Gen 2 was designed specifically for environments such as retail distribution centers and warehouses, to prevent a high number of readers from interfering with each other.

Impinj is delighted to receive formal EPCglobal certification for our Monza chips and Speedway reader, said Dr. William Colleran, Impinj president and CEO. Our customers can continue deploying our Gen 2 products with the assurance that they fully comply with the EPCglobal standard. With our Gen 2 products certified for tags and readers in dense reader mode, Impinj establishes a new milestone for the RFID industry.

"EPCglobal US commends the first recipients of the Hardware Certification Mark for their leadership and commitment to the shared benefits of the EPCglobal Network," said EPCglobal US president Mike Meranda. "It is indeed exciting to see the first, groundbreaking products hit the marketplace so quickly after the UHF Gen 2 standard was ratified in December 2004. As more and more certified products become available, the widespread adoption and implementation of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) and the EPCglobal Network will bring our vision of a world of connected commerce clearer and closer to reality."

About Monza Gen 2 Tag ChipsMonza chips, part of Impinjs GrandPrix solution for robust RFID systems, implement all mandatory features and several optional commands of the Gen 2 protocol delivering the many benefits promised by Gen 2, including superior tag throughput and compliance with global spectrum regulations. As demonstrated in several pilots currently underway, Monza chips establish new benchmarks for range, readability, and high-speed field rewriteability. Orientation insensitivity is an added benefit when Monza is used in Impinjs unique dual antenna configuration. In keeping with Impinjs high quality standards, Monza chips are 100% factory tested and exhibit excellent RF impedance and ESD protection characteristics, critical for ensuring superior inlay manufacturability at the highest assembly speeds.

About the Speedway RFID Dense-Mode ReaderThe Speedway reader is the industrys first high-performance reader designed from the ground up to support the EPCglobal Gen 2 standard in its entirety. Speedway delivers unrivaled capabilities by eliminating ghost reads and supporting the most challenging operating modes of the Gen 2 protocol, dense-reader environment and 640 kbps tag-to-reader data rates. Empowered by Impinjs patented approach to noise immunity, the Speedway reader and its four duplexed antenna ports deliver outstanding range, read sensitivity and configuration flexibility. Speedway offers field-upgradeable software and support for customer application software.

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